Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

HA! I always wondered the same things. How do you withdraw from someone who already left? They just do it out of spite, to make the person feel bad and to try to prove that they still have some "power" over the person. So tedious.

Hi, Vincentstruggler. Welcome to the board! I went through the same dilemma when I left the COC and was trying to decide where to go next (if anywhere--I was pretty burned out and disillusioned at that point). I visited a lot of different denominations--Methodist, Presbyterian, American Baptist, Uni...

i don't think I can pick just one. Leaving was such a long, drawn out process for me. Moogy, I think I started to leave emotionally when I was in my early teens, and was finally emotionally out in my late fifties. Same here. I picked the 30-39 range because I began physically walking away when I wa...

I gave my childhood NI COC congregation a score of 94. I scored it low on the violence and sex stuff but very high on dogma and hypocrisy.

And how far does the "disfellowshiping" go? Can a faithful CoC'er say hello to the miscreant? Do you have to cross the street to avoid him? How about business dealings; can you shop at his store, or sell him stuff if he comes into your store? If he's the only pharmacist in town, does it d...

LAS8986 wrote:Just curious. Did anyone else ever sit through a reading of a letter written to a "disfellowshipped" member?

Oh, yes, on too many occasions to count. The NI COC disfellowships people right and left. I'm amazed there's anyone left to keep the place going.

Songs and sermon usually had no connection to each other. One of the many things I like about going to a liturgical church is that the sermon is supposed to be based on the scripture readings assigned for the day, and our music director and the pastor try to pick songs that fit that theme, so it al...

Welcome back! I believe that religious PTSD is real. Marlene Winell talks about it quite a bit in her book "Leaving the Fold," which I recommended in another thread. It certainly explains a lot of the problems that my sibs and I have had over the years. Thanks for the book suggestion! I a...

I can't say that I had any true friends in the CoC. Our relationships were very superficial, by necessity, because we were all projecting the facade of the perfect Christian rather than our true selves, for fear of being accused of sin. It was like living in a police state; you couldn't trust anyone...

Welcome back! I believe that religious PTSD is real. Marlene Winell talks about it quite a bit in her book "Leaving the Fold," which I recommended in another thread. It certainly explains a lot of the problems that my sibs and I have had over the years.